Delete All Facebook Apps You're Not Using

By Ben PopkenNovember 5, 2010

Here’s a fun lil’ project to protect your privacy in just a few minutes. Go through Facebook and delete all the apps you’re no longer using. That way they’ll no longer have access your data so they can’t mine it or sell it. Here’s how to do it.

Go directly to the app setting page by going to http://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=applications, or you can click through by going to “Account” in the upper right — Account settings — Midway through the page to the right of “Privacy” hit “manage” — Bottom left under “Applications and Websites” hit “Edit your settings” — Under “Applications you use” hit “Remove unwanted or spammy applications.”

Now here’s all your applications. Hit the x by every application you no longer use. Happy culling!

How many apps did you get rid of? I dumped 40. Post your kill counts in the comments.

Mature people who use facebook are not idiots. With the help of facebook, I’ve become more social, reconnected with friends I haven’t seen in decades, and done plenty of networking. If you’re an idiot using facebook, then yes, it sucks. Did I make make my point?

What exactly is your threshold for deservedness, since there is no guarantee your data won’t be breached or shared pretty much anywhere? I assume you never hand your server your credit card and let them walk out of sight to use it? I also assume you never give out your SSN to anyone?

Okay, I’ll bite. Since I do computer security for a living, I’m more paranoid than most. There’s no way you can live in the modern world and achieve perfect privacy. As soon as you get a driver’s license or a job, you’re “in the system,” and that perfect privacy bubble has been pierced. Beyond that, it’s all a risk/reward calculation. Yes, I give my credit card to the server. But the risk is low, because the credit card has legal protections that limit my financial risk, and I don’t much care if the server knows my full name.

Privacy concerns don’t stop me from using facebook. I don’t use facebook because I tried it and found it to be a big waste of time. Other people enjoy it, so good for them. But I also don’t put anything on the internet, on facebook or anywhere else, that I wouldn’t want publicly known. I can still find things I posted on usenet in the early 90’s, using my real name, so I assume anything I put on the internet now will still be available long after I’m not available anymore.

“I can still find things I posted on usenet in the early 90’s, using my real name, so I assume anything I put on the internet now will still be available long after I’m not available anymore. “

I’m also in the same boat. Back in the 80’s – early 90’s, the internet and BBSs were obscure enough that even using a real name was essentially anonymous. I have some old Usenet posts that I regret. I learned my lesson a long time ago.

I’m quite happy with the lack of information about me that can be obtained using facebook and google. Legal records is another thing, but you agree to background checks before you accept a job offer anyway, so that’s legit. Besides, I think I could actually gain sympathy from a potential employer by explaining that my eviction was due to rescuing a kitten…

I also have never installed any facebook apps. I started to a couple of time when I first opened my FB account, but the disclaimers said that they would gather information about me and my FB friends, so I canceled out of the install.

which preemptively commented in a similar fashion. As in, “These will be the typical consumerist comments (see bingo above) and I will list all that I can to get them out of the way so that we can get to the people that *do* responsibly use facebook and wish to add to the discussion.”

i used to do this routinely – as a SAHM apps are one way to kill the time. I routinely go through and kill all that aren’t used daily – which total to about 4 (Bejewled blitz, anyone? i just won a million coins on my spin :P).
The first time I did it was right after those “which loaf of BrEad is you!!?” quizzes started coming out.

I’ve noticed they’ve made it harder to find the location to delete your apps. There used to be a menu option that just said “Applications,” that page would list them all and you could delete them easily. Now you have to click through about 4 pages to get to it.

I got rid of 0 but that is because I had 0 to begin with. I have platform applications disabled so everything in the apps, games, websites is turned off. And I periodically check this to make sure that FB hasn’t helped me by turning these on.

Is there something wrong with not giving FB any info beyond your birthday, and not adding 3rd party apps? Like it or not, Facebook is the most convenient way to keep in touch with old friends. Facebook is a useful tool, provided you don’t let it take control of your personal information.

I don’t use my real name, picture, or any real information about myself on Facebook to start with; hell, I’m not using my real name here on Consumerist, either! If you’re putting your whole life on Facebook or any other so-called “social networking” site, then you’re an idiot who gets what they deserve when your entire life gets raped away from you. Don’t do it!

I grudgingly joined FB because it’s the easiest way to keep up with friends who live half a country away. However, it’s no longer true that the only way to deal with FB privacy is to delete your account. It’s also true, unfortunately, that this is only the case until FB decides to make its next groundbreaking assault on users’ privacy. So, I muddle along while being very vigilant.

BTW, I had only 1 app that hadn’t already been deleted/refused, and I use that one (iPhoto uploader). Smashing apps was one of the first tricks I learned in using FB.

Well I am hanging my head in shame, I removed 329!! Took my entire lunch break… wtf is wrong with me, did I really NEED to know my Japanese name? What 80’s tv character am I? Apparently I had every, single “send a drink” app ever created, like 50.

It’s probably a good idea to go through all of your fb settings about once a month, just to make sure they’re still what you intended. Facebook has a maddening tendency to keep changing the silverware drawer around, especially in regards to security settings.

I have my name on Facebook and that’s it. And that’s just so people can find me. No apps, no real info, don’t post anything, and don’t want to read anything anyone else has posted so I have all their crap hidden.

I didn’t count how many I got rid of but I deleted everything. I’ve been looking for a way to do that for a while but I haz teh dumb and didn’t bother looking into how I could get rid of them. Thanks for the info!

During a bout of unemployment 2 years ago, I spent a great deal of time searching for jobs online but when I needed a break from it, I’d resort to those stupid facebook quizzes out of sheer boredom (I opted out of having results posted to my wall or newsfeeds, so as not to annoy my friends) â€¦once I realized that all those quizzes were storing data, I found where they could be deleted and it took FOREVER to get rid of all of them, there were so many. Now whenever I feel compelled to enter any kind of fb ap, I delete it as soon as Iâ€™m done with it, and Iâ€™m pretty picky about which aps I even enter. I donâ€™t even remember using half of the ones that were on there originally!

It says “You have turned off all platform aplications, games and websites”. When i click on Edit Settings it says: “You have not authorized any applications to interact with your Facebook account.”
Sweet.

You REMOVED 40? sheesh… I guess it’s a sign that I’m a paranoid, I didn’t trust fb apps before the data misuse thing became big news… but then I’m a tech geek. I read what a few apps said they would access and decided that fb apps are bad. ;) I only had 11 total, and removed 8 of those just now.

I lost count. I didn’t think I would have to delete too many but was shocked at how many apps I had connected with – those stupid polls and family tree things. Definitely worth doing if you have Facebook.